RoboCop script
"Detroit. The Future. New Technologies have left Detroit behind. In the wake of this changing economy has come poverty, social decay and crime. This is a story about a cop named Murphy." :: - the script's simple introductory page. The first film, like most productions, differs from Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner's original script in several minor ways, and one or two more noticable ways. The script also fills in a few blanks and provides some great background material into the story. All differences great and small Firstly, there are some fundemental differences to the world of Old Detroit. The police cruisers (termed "turbocruisers" in the script) are twin-engined, ultra quick machines packed with electronics and electronic countermeasures and utilising some form of jet engine technology and not a reciprocating piston engine. The same is true of the 6000 SUX. Technology is perhaps more advanced than that which is seen in the film, with an inhabited Lunar Colony built on the moon (obviously). Security is also more space-age, with doors being key-card operated and secure areas being generally better protected. The system for dealing with criminals at the police station is portrayed as more of a breadline, a fast-track justice system which is clearly fraught with all manner of logistical problems. Also Steve Minh is called Steve Chan for some reason. Prologue : "How'ya feelin'? Give your cop friends a message: Stay out of Old Detroit." :: - Clarence after shooting Frederickson in the face. The first difference is both obvious and pretty cool. The script details the murder of Frank Frederickson and his colleagues, Alcott, Duffy and Connors, who are ambushed by Clarence and his gang. It's late at night and the four officers are riding in two seperate "turbocruisers", with Alcott and Duffy up front. They are racing to some sort of disturbance in Old Detroit, spaced a few blocks apart, trading jokes and light hearted insults over the radio. However, as one cruiser rounds a corner, the radio suddenly explodes into static. Frederickson speeds up and Connors readies a combat shotgun as they round the corner... to see the first turbocruiser a fiery casket of a wreck. Alcott and Duffy spill bonelessly out onto the street. Medivac and backup are not available, so Connors and Frederickson take a deep breath each and close in to rescue them themselves. Frederickson tends to the wounded officers as Connors covers them, turning in slow circles, shotgun at the ready, straining to see into the dark and shadows at either side of the street. Duffy is already dead and Alcott convulsing and badly wounded - from a shot to the chest. Suddenly it all kicks off. Connors levels his shotgun, but the gang have the drop on him and a five-shotgun barrage cuts him down. Frederickson comes up fighting, pumping rounds from his pistol towards the shadows moving on the sidewalks and moving doube-time back to the turbocruiser. He catches a burst of buckshot in the leg, but staggers to the cruiser and pulls himself inside, hurrying to activate the engine controls. As it burst into life, he glances up... just as the windscreen explodes into fragments and a vicious wound opens up on his face. As the gang calmly closes in on the crippled cop, Leon finishes off Alcott with a shot to the head and Emil is noted spray painting numbers the corpses: a sick tally of the number of cops they've killed so far: 31. As this is going on, Clarence sidles up to Frederickson, tells him to deliver a warning to the other cops to stay away, then shifts the car into drive with his shotgun. Slowly dying at the wheel, Frederickson struggles to control the car whilst pleading over the radio for assistance. First impressions of Old Detroit are indeed grim. Act One This act includes the introduction of Murphy and Sergeant Reed, the confirmation of Frederickson's death in hospital and the teaming of Lewis with Murphy. These scenes are pretty much word-for-word how they occur in the film. Act Two The scene where we are introduced to Bob Morton and the other OCP employees for ED-209's unveiling. It's made more explicit that ED-209 has always been plagued with problems: financial issues, hardware and software problems... you name it, the Enforcement Droid program is probably beleugered with it. It is for this reason that the Old Man greenlighted Morton's RoboCop program. Morton's also a bit more of a bastard, swearing more and being more vindictive to the unfortunate Mr. Kinney. Kinney's brisk spiral to untimely death is also slightly different. In the script, ED-209 malfunctions because the deep-pile OCP carpet is so lovely and lush and thick that the gun makes no noise when it thumps into floor and ED-209 therefore assumes that Kinney is still holding it. For an advanced peacekeeping machine charged with urban pacification this is clearly a rather ridiculous oversight, even for OCP, which is probably why they opted for a simple software glitch in the film. Kinney's original death was less brutal and more symbolic too - ED-209 doesn't riddle him with rounds for an extended time, just giving him a lethal few shots. As he lies dead upon the model of Delta City, his blood flows along its tiny streets and miniature pavements. It's tough dying as a metaphor. Amusingly, the other execs don't call for a "goddamn paramedic" as they do in the film; they call "Medical Concepts" instead, a further nod to the image of a massive corporate takeover of the country. Act Three :"Damn, this was a great hideout." :: - Leon after the murder of Murphy. Where Murphy and Lewis tangle with the Boddicker Gang for the first time. Not many changes here and not much else is revealed that we don't already know. The main change is that it happens at night, and also, they do not end up at the steel mill, but at a hideout in a huge warehouse complex full of crates, cargo containers and similar paraphernalia. What happens in the hideout is slightly different. Lewis is not punched off a balcony by Joe P. Cox, but clocked in the face by a blackjack and falls down a greasy freight elevator shaft and gets quite badly smashed up on machinery therein (this way round, it's a bit more believable that Joe doesn't finish her off, as he couldn't see her in the dark elevator shaft). Trapped in this shaft, cables covered in grease, Lewis is unable to climb out in time to get to Murphy, and can only listen as his torture progresses. To make matters worse, when she finally claws her way out, hands bleeding, she gets lost amongst a maze of stacked pallets of beer. It's graphically mentioned how Murphy is trying to stand on broken limbs and is basically having a god awful time. When Lewis arrives by his pulped body she gets much more angry and upset, shouting at the dispatcher and being a lot more proactive than she was in the film. On his way to the operating room, Murphy has many more flashbacks, from early childhood swimming lessons, to being in school, to meeting his wife, to his son being born, on top of the ones you see in the film. Act Four Where Murphy is reformatted into Robocop. Nothing of particular note is changed here. Some more technobabble, but otherwise how it appears on screen. Act Five Where Robocop is delivered to Metro West Precinct for final testing and calibration. Again, nothing of note is changed. Some very minor changes, such as Morton trying the "rudimentary paste" instead of Johnson. Act Six :"Open the safe, pops, or I'm gonna blow junior here all over the candy rack." :: - The Hop Head robbing the grocery store. Robocop's first night out.'' The attempted rape and hostage-taking proceed as per the film. At the grocery store, a thieving kid has been added, who's shoplifting candy bars. The robber, called Hop Head in the script, threatens to shoot him rather than the grocery store owner's wife. There's lots more bullets richocheting about the place and lots more blood too. Like Bobby it's unclear if the Hop Head is dead, but he's certainly severely injured by the time Robocop is done with him. Robocop also takes the time to inform us that "prisoner transport will arrive shortly", rather than seemingly walking off like he does on film. After he's gone, the kid goes up to the counter and pays for his candy bars. It's also clear that the other cops are unnerved by Robocop, as detailed when he passes a few of them at a burger stand. Act Seven ''In which '''Morton crosses the line and Jones gets plenty pissed.'' Nothing to report, except the "executive lounge" is much nicer, with bevelled glass and posh tiles, a sauna, a gym and "everything else you need to combat stress and fatigue here at the top". Much more luxurious than the glorified public toilet we see on film. Act Eight ''Where Robocop has a bad dream, gets up and walks out of the precinct and tangles with '''Emil. Pretty much the same, except Emil doesn't deliver his "I know you. We killed you. We killed you!" line, instead just saying "you...". He's panicking more too, dropping his cigarette by mistake and almost losing control of his bike, instead of the smooth getaway he executes in the film. Oh, and when the gas station explodes, the "S" of "SHELL" gets obliterated, leaving a big fiery illuminated "HELL" in the night sky. Robocop's also on fire, but it doesn't bother him. Act Nine During which Robocop tracks down his old house and visits his grave! Robo's stroll around his house occurs pretty much exactly how it does on film. The most interesting change was the removal of the scene where Robocop visits his grave. It's teeming down with rain, and Robo is walking amongst the tombstones. With every crack of thunder and flash of lightning we see the faces of Emil, Steve Chan (Minh), Joe and the others opening up with their shotguns. This soon fades to the image of Murphy's gravestone, a white cross bearing the words Alex Murphy, Beloved Husband and Father, RIP. Act Ten ''Bob Morton's death''. Very similar to the events seen on screen, except that Clarence is not identified as such until the end of the scene. Also of note is the fact that Bob Morton has a cat, which befriends Clarence, much to Bob's chargrin. Neumeier and Miner couldn't bring themselves to bump off the cat though: it slips out of the front door along with Clarence before the grenade goes off. Act Eleven During which Robocop tracks down Claraence through his gang.